Notes and Essays -- John Brown

 by  The Kyiv Independent news desk   Most Popular 1 . Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant left with just 22 reactor operators, far below safety levels 2 . As Russia rained missiles on Ukrainian cities last fall, US issued warning to Kyiv over Black Sea drone strike, ambassador says 3 . Russia claims potential Black Sea gas pipeline sabotage could threaten peace talks 4 . Claiming Ukraine threat, Orban deploys troops to 'protect energy infrastructure' 5 . Ukraine might have a new Flamingo missile deep strike strategy for inside Russia, experts say

Icon for Ukraine News (Euroasia) Ukraine News (Euroasia) · Follow Posted by Pavlo Usov 3.0 21h U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy d uring a phone call that  he wants he war in Ukraine to end within a month , according to sources cited by Axios.   The conversation, described as friendly, reportedly lasted about 30 minutes. Sources say Zelenskyy expressed hope that a  peace agreement could be reached by the end of 2026.  Trump, however, responded that the war has dragged on too long and should be resolved much sooner. During the call, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for U.S. support and said only he could pressure Vladimir Putin to stop the war. The two leaders also discussed holding a trilateral meeting involving Ukraine, the United States, and Russia. Zelenskyy later confirmed that such a meeting is planned for early March, expressing hope it could pave the way for leader-level negotiations and eventually a direct meeting with Puti...

Ukrainian officials said they hoped that trilateral peace negotiations could take place next week. sia  By  Kim Barker Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine The New York Times , Feb. 26, 2026 Updated  6:29 p.m. ET American and Ukrainian negotiators met for hours on Thursday in Geneva to prepare for the next round of trilateral peace negotiations with Russia, which Ukrainian officials hope could be held as early as next week. The negotiations started hours after Russia pummeled cities across Ukraine with drone and missile strikes. The attacks wounded at least 20 people and damaged buildings in eight regions, including in Kyiv, the capital, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in  a post on social media  on Thursday that the Russian strikes had targeted gas infrastructure and power substations . The latest barrage was launched just days after Ukraine marked the  fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion . The strikes took place shortly...

They Kyiv Independent Editor-in-Chief Olga Rudenko Dear reader, This is Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent. Feb. 24 is a day of change for every Ukrainian. It’s the day when all of us in Ukraine passed through a singular transformation that changed us profoundly. Everyone in Ukraine has a story that is special to them and that they have retold many times: It’s a story of where they were on the morning of Feb. 24, 2022. I’ve heard many variations of this story. A very common one is jumping out of bed from the sound of explosions. Others were woken up by panicky phone calls from their family or friends. I never tire of listening to these retellings. I’ve heard my friends’ stories many times, and have shared mine over and over. I think we do it because we are still catching up with how much that day changed us. It was a singular experience, and it has, in a way, forever made us different. There are people who have been woken by war, and people who have not. I didn’t ha...

Timofey Vorobyov  ·  Follow lives in Lviv, Ukraine  Updated Dec 22 Are Ethnic Russians indigenous to the Eastern Ukraine? No. Same as to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The ethnic Russian majority in the East of Ukraine (correction: ethnic Russians have a majority only and specifically in several big industrial cities of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, not overall) is a direct result of the Russian Imperial and, to a larger degree, Soviet colonization policies, mainly: Holodomor, which effectively worked as an ethnic cleansing there.  Once a large part of the indigenous Ukrainian population was starved to death, outright killed or deported to Siberia for refusing to join the collective farms, they were replaced by ethnic Russians from the poorest areas of Russia. Russification.  Not only ethnic Ukrainians were coerced or stimulated to speak Russian, but ethnic Russians were summoned to work as teachers, middle management, military, police and other important po...

By David French, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times ,  Feb. 26, 2026,  5:06 a.m. ET Credit... [image by George Douglas ] You’re reading the David French newsletter.   Reflections on law and culture, war and peace, and the deeper trends that define and divide America.  Get it sent to your inbox. Four long years. That’s how long Ukraine has been fighting for its life against Russia. The sheer scale and ferocity of the conflict is hard for us to comprehend. Russia has lost a staggering number of men.  The Economist estimates  that total Russian casualties number between 1.1 and 1.4 million .  Between 230,000 and 430,000 Russians have died. That’s one in 25 Russian men between the ages of 18 and 49 who’ve probably been killed or seriously wounded since the war began. Ukrainian losses have been far less severe in absolute numbers, but worse as a percentage of the population. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that Ukraine h...